The scientific tourist #198 — Harlan’s Ground Sloth

From the La Brea tar pits’ Page Museum in Los Angeles, I bring you this example of Harlan’s Ground Sloth (Glossotherium harlani):

This creature was one of two types of ground sloths found at the La Brea tar pits, and depending on what source you choose was part of either the Paramylodon or Glossotherium genus. In any event, it lived from around 4.9 million years ago until about 11,000 years ago — and was named in honor of its discoverer, Dr. Richard Harlan, who found a lower jaw in 1835.

From the placard:

This medium-sized ground sloth stood a little over six feet tall and weighed about 1500 pounds. Its simple, flat, grinding teeth indicate that it probably preferred a diet of grass, although it may also have fed on tubers, bushes, and trees. Ground sloths are primitive mammals related to the present-day armadillos and the small tree sloths of Central and South America.